“An Awful Battle at Homestead, Pa.”In 1892, owner Andrew Carnegie and his plant manager Henry Clay Frick decided to break the steelworkers union at the Carnegie Steel Company plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania. Frick locked out the steelworkers and hired 300 armed guards from the Pinkerton National Detective Agency to protect non-union strikebreakers. When the Pinkertons arrived on barges, armed steelworkers defeated them in a bloody pitched battle. Later, however, the state militia supported Carnegie, and the strike—along with the union—was broken. The National Police Gazette portrayed the July 6, 1892, fight between striking workers and Pinkerton strike-breakers on the Monongahela River. A national weekly directed to male readers, many of whom were workers, the Police Gazette occasionally covered labor conflict, expressing sympathy toward strikers while also exploiting the more sensational aspects of the events.Resources Available: .

Carnegie Libraries of CaliforniaPat and Bernie Skehan.Designed to document the many thousands of dollars Andrew Carnegie donated to establish public libraries in California, this site includes modern and contemporary photographs of each of the 144 libraries built between 1889 and 1923. San Diego was the first to receive a Carnegie grant, receiving $60,000 in 1889. Although many of the libraries have been demolished, this site includes photographs and short (250-word) descriptions of each. The date and amount of each grant is documented, as is the style of architecture and the architect. The site also features three essays: a 1,000-word history of the California library building boom; a 3,000-word analysis of the California Carnegie Libraries’ different architectural styles; and a 2,000-word biography of Carnegie. Particular emphasis is paid to Carnegie’s philanthropy, and the site points out that he donated money to 1,681 public libraries across the United States. The 144 library photographs are the only primary sources included on the site.Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES.Website last visited on 2004-06-10.

Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth: Workers Protest Carnegie LibraryIn his essay “Wealth,” published in the North American Review in 1889, industrialist Andrew Carnegie argued that individual capitalists were bound by duty to play a broader cultural and social role and thus improve the world. (The essay later became famous under the title “The Gospel of Wealth.”) But not everyone agreed with Carnegie’s perspective. As shown by this newspaper article from 1901, the philanthropic gestures of such captains of industry as Andrew Carnegie were not always greeted with enthusiasm by the workers whose low-paid toil effectively underwrote such extravagant "gifts."Resources Available: TEXT.

Carnegie Speaks: A Recording of the Gospel of WealthIn his essay “Wealth,” published in the North American Review in 1889, industrialist Andrew Carnegie argued that individual capitalists were duty bound to play a broader cultural and social role and thus improve the world. Carnegie’s essay later became famous under the title “The Gospel of Wealth,” and in 1908, at age seventy-three, Andrew Carnegie recorded a portion of it under that title. (Click here to read the full text of the article.)Resources Available: TEXT, AUDIO.

A Workingman’s Prayer for the MassesIn his essay “Wealth,” published in the North American Review in 1889, industrialist Andrew Carnegie argued that individual capitalists were bound by duty to play a broader cultural and social role and thus improve the world. (The essay later became famous under the title “The Gospel of Wealth.”) But not everyone agreed with Carnegie’s perspective. This 1894 “prayer” by “A Workman” (an anonymous contributor to the National Labor Tribune) was a sarcastic critique of Carnegie’s paternalism and philanthropy.Resources Available: TEXT.

Historic PittsburghUniversity of Pittsburgh Digital Research Library.This site offers an extensive archive of material on the history and culture of Pittsburgh, including full-text published works, maps, images, and census records, as well as archival finding aids. The full-text collection, covering the colonial period through World War I, presents more than 500 books on Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania history, including manuscripts, reports, dictionaries, diaries, and periodicals. The collection can be browsed by author, genre, date published, or categories such as culture and society or people and personalities. It can also be searched by keyword or bibliographic information including author, title, and subject. The map collection offers visitors the ability to search and view 1,122 plates from 26 volumes of Hopkins Real Estate maps (1872 – 1939) and the 1914 Warrantee Atlas of Allegheny County. The more than 8,000 images can be browse by time period (1860s to 1980s), location, collection, or through four thematic presentations focused on work, play, home life, and personalities. Also available are searchable U.S. census schedules for Pittsburgh from 1850 to 1880 and for Allegheny City from 1850 to 1870 and archival finding aids to 700 archival collections. Additionally, there is a timeline of Pittsburgh history from 1750 to 2000 and two lesson plans for teachers based on the material in the site’s collections, one on using census data and one on using the map collections. A useful resource with a variety of primary source material for anyone researching the social or cultural history of Pittsburgh.Resources Available: TEXT, IMAGES.Website last visited on 2008-10-08.

Andrew Carnegie’s Ode to SteelmakingKnown best by his knack for moneymaking, turn-of-the-century steel magnate Andrew Carnegie nonetheless found a moment to pen a one-sided poetic tribute to the “eighth wonder” of the world—steel manufacturing in his Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, plant. This brief poem reflected how he (and other contemporaries) viewed the monumental process of steelmaking. The poem was notable for its use of passive voice and the absence of workers—miners, railroad men, or blast furnace crews—from the process by which “one pound of solid steel” came to be.Resources Available: TEXT.

Documenting Our Past: The Teenie Harris Archive ProjectUniversity of Pittsburgh Department of History.This archive of 1,500 photographs taken by Teenie Harris, photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier, “one of the largest and most influential Black newspapers in the country,” documents African-American urban life in Pittsburgh from the 1930s to the 1960s. This is a sample of the 80,000 images that make up the full collection. Many of the images have not been identified and the site’s authors ask assistance (a submission form accompanies each image). Visitors can browse the collection through 15 galleries of 100 images each. They can also comment on images and view the comments of others. Following the link to the Teenie Harris image collection in the Historic Pittsburgh Images Collections at the University of Pittsburgh allows visitors to browse the 541 images that have been identified with full captions. The site also offers a chronology of Harris’s life. This site is useful for researching the history of Pittsburgh and its African-American community as well as urban history or African-American history in general.Resources Available: IMAGES.Website last visited on 2006-02-09.

Frick’s Fracas: Henry Frick Makes His CaseDuring the 1892 strike at the Homestead Steel Works, plant manager Henry Clay Frick attempted to defeat the strikers forcibly by hiring three hundred armed agents of the notorious Pinkerton Detective Agency. The strikers fought back, and, after casualties and deaths on both sides, the Pinkertons surrendered. In the aftermath of the Pinkerton debacle, Frick spoke with a reporter for the Pittsburgh Post. He laid out his implacable opposition to dealing with the union, his belief that the Pennsylvania governor should send in troops, and his goal of reducing wages at the plant, the central issue in the conflict. Frick argued that the Homestead owners were not allowed to reap the fruits of their investment because of workers' inordinately high wage scales. The union, on the other hand, claimed that the cost of producing steel at Homestead was well below the industry standard, in large measure because the Homestead workers had cooperated in the recent mechanization of the plant.Resources Available: TEXT.

“I Will Kill Frick”: Emma Goldman Recounts the Attempt to Assassinate the Chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company During the: Homestead Strike in 1892Emma Goldman.Henry Clay Frick, chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company, was demonized by labor for his role in the violent Homestead strike in 1892 in which a pitched battle was fought between strikers and company-hired Pinkerton detectives. Known for his uncompromising and cruel tactics, Frick became an obvious target for labor activists looking to make a statement during the protracted strike. In this excerpt from her autobiography, Living my Life, radical Emma Goldman described how fellow radical Alexander Berkman decided to murder Frick during the Homestead strike.Resources Available: TEXT.

The Musical Saga of HomesteadWorkers sang during strikes not only to state their beliefs and goals, but because singing helped bind workers together. The Homestead strike of 1892 even had its own Homestead Strike Songster, and the story of the strike can be traced in the lyrics of the following four songs. “The Homestead Strike” explained that Carnegie’s efforts to “lower our wages” was the basic cause of the strike. “The Fort That Frick Built” described Homestead manager Henry Frick’s transformation of the mill on the eve of the strike into a fortress with barbed-wire fences. The death of nine strikers was chronicled in “Father Was Killed by the Pinkerton Men.” And “Song of a Strike,” written by George Swetnam, retrospectively commemorated the Homestead strikers' courage in defending their homes and their jobs against the overwhelming might of the Carnegie Steel Company and their hired "bum detectives."Resources Available: TEXT.

A Thorn in the Side: A Socialist Takes Aim at GompersDuring the 1890s, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was faced with both the rising popularity of the People’s Party in rural areas and attempts by the Populist movement to create a farmer-labor alliance. At the same time, socialist trade unionists lobbied for greater political involvement and adoption of several key socialist positions by the AFL. One of those socialist trade unionists was J. Mahlon Barnes, a Philadelphia cigar maker, member of the Cigarmakers’ International Union, and member of the Socialist Labor Party. Barnes was a sharp critic of longtime AFL leader Samuel Gompers. In 1894 he played a key role in the only defeat that Gompers suffered in election to the AFL presidency. In this 1896 speech in Boston, Barnes chided Gompers and like-minded mainstream labor leaders for refusing to endorse socialism and, more generally, any form of direct political action.Resources Available: TEXT.

Swinton’s Silver Lining: Taking Comfort in the 1892 StrikesTo many in the labor movement, the year 1892 brought only a string of defeats, as labor editor John Swinton said in this speech to the December 1892 convention of the American Federation of Labor. But Swinton managed to rally union members with an optimistic message. Although defeated, the workers who struck at Homestead and elsewhere prevented further attacks on labor in other places. Swinton, a former abolitionist, drew an analogy from the North’s ultimate victory in the Civil War. Resources Available: TEXT.

Henry Grady Sells the “New South”The vision of a “New South” was heralded by southern landowners, entrepreneurs, and newspaper editors in the decades following the Confederacy’s defeat in 1865 and the abolition of racial slavery across the South. These “New South” boosters argued that, with its plantation economy destroyed by the Civil War and Reconstruction, the South would develop a new economy more attuned to the industrial capitalism that defined the rest of the American economy. Atlanta Constitution editor Henry Grady was the leading exponent of a “New South” based on industrial development, giving speeches throughout the country and writing articles and editorials in his newspaper. Both of the following speeches by Grady—one given in Boston in 1889, the other in New York in 1886—conveyed not only the message of industrialization as a panacea, but also Grady’s fierce regional pride and his general moderation on racial issues, which were becoming increasingly contentious in these years. Resources Available: TEXT.

Outside Looking In: Byington on Homestead’s WomenIn 1892, Homestead, Pennsylvania, was the site of one of the most dramatic strikes in U.S. history. The Carnegie Steel Company’s ultimate victory resulted in the destruction of a once-powerful union of skilled iron and steel workers. By 1907, almost 7,000 workers toiled at the Homestead plant for the U.S. Steel Corporation. In 1907–1908, the Russell Sage Foundation undertook an intensive study that attempted to understand the dramatic changes that had reshaped Homestead and other industrial communities. The resulting six-volume report, written by progressive social reformers, included Margaret Byington’s Homestead: The Households of a Mill Town, first published in 1910. This excerpt from Byington’s study depicted work and home life for the immigrant women of Homestead. Byington’s account, while sympathetic to the immigrants who comprised the bulk of the steel town’s labor force, was written from the perspective of an outsider. She emphasized women’s limited participation in the paid labor force in steel mill towns like Homestead, yet she provided repeated testimony regarding the multiple economic and social roles of women in Homestead as managers of family finances and family relationships.Resources Available: TEXT.

The Gospel According to Andrew: Carnegie’s Hymn to WealthIn his essay “Wealth,” published in North American Review in 1889, the industrialist Andrew Carnegie argued that individual capitalists were duty bound to play a broader cultural and social role and thus improve the world. Some labor activists sharply differed with Carnegie’s point-of-view and responded with essays of their own, such as the Pennsylvania trade unionists who protested Carnegie’s gift of a library to the city of New Castle by pointing out that it had been built with the “sweat and blood of thousands of workers.” Carnegie’s essay, below, later became famous under the title “The Gospel of Wealth.” (Click here to hear an audio version of an excerpt from that speech.)Resources Available: TEXT.

Telling Tales: Byington’s Study of HomesteadHomestead, Pennsylvania, was in many ways the prototypical early twentieth-century mill town. Located seven miles up the Monongahela River from Pittsburgh, the first steel mill was built in Homestead in 1881. In 1892, Homestead was the site of one of the most dramatic strikes in U.S. history. The Carnegie Steel Company’s ultimate victory resulted in the destruction of a once-powerful union of skilled iron and steel workers. By 1907, almost 7,000 workers toiled at the Homestead plant for the U.S. Steel Corporation. In 1907–1908, the Russell Sage Foundation undertook an intensive study that attempted to understand the dramatic changes that had reshaped Homestead and other industrial communities. Written by progressive social reformers, the six-volume Pittsburgh Survey emphasized the devastating impact of industrial life on those who labored in the nation’s factories. The following excerpt is from Margaret Byington’s Pittsburgh Survey volume, Homestead: The Households of a Mill Town, first published in 1910. In the spirit of the Progressive-era effort to scientifically document conditions, the book also included photographs (by the famous documentary photographer Lewis Hine) and detailed family budgets.Resources Available: TEXT.

Course Portfolios for History 67, The United States to 1877 at Temple UniversityWilliam Cutler.Between the spring 1997 semester and the spring 2000 semester, Professor Cutler modified his survey course with the help of a fellowship from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement for Teaching. He designed a new, online syllabus; linked it to Web-based primary sources; and built in a feature allowing students to post work weekly online. Cutler documented the process in extensive course portfolios that describe how he conceived the course and what happened over the semester as he taught it. You can see how the course changed by beginning with the portfolio for 1996–1997, then reading the course portfolio narrative for 2000. Click on student reports to read examples of student writing assignments. Cutler is also the author of two articles on teaching U.S. history for the American Historical Association newsletter Perspectives; one appeared in 1997 and the other in April, 2002. Resources Available: TEXT.

Interview with Charles ErricoCharles Errico received his Ph.D. in American diplomatic history from the
University of Maryland. He is the assistant dean and professor of history
at the Woodbridge Campus of Northern Virginia Community College. He also
teaches in the graduate history program at George Mason University. Over
the last twenty years, Dr. Errico has won teaching awards from the
Educational Foundation, the Alumni Association, and the Carnegie Institute.
He most recently co-edited a popular American history readings book,
Portrait of America, that was published by Houghton-Mifflin in 2003.Resources Available: TEXT.

Forum on African-American History James O. Horton.This forum was moderated by James O. Horton, the Benjamin Banneker Professor of American Studies and History at George Washington University and Director of the Afro-American Communities Project of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution. He has served as historical advisor to several museums in the United States and abroad, and has been historical consultant to numerous film and video productions. He has published numerous articles and seven books including Free People of Color: Inside the African American Community (1993) The History of the African American People (1995), co-edited with Lois E. Horton and In Hope of Liberty: Culture, Protest, and Community Among Northern Free Blacks, 1700–1860 coauthored with Lois E. Horton (nominee for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize in History). Professor Horton has been recognized for teaching excellence, receiving The Carnegie Foundation, CASE Professor of the Year for the District of Columbia, in 1996 and the Trachtenberg Distinguished Teaching Award for George Washington University, 1994. (October, 2000)Resources Available: TEXT.

Interview with Orville Vernon BurtonOrville Vernon Burton is Professor of History and Sociology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He is also a Senior Research Scientist at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications where he heads the initiative for Humanities and Social Science projects. His major areas of research are race relations, family, community, and religion. His work has appeared in more than a hundred articles in a variety of journals. He is the author or editor of six books (one of which is on CD-ROM), including In My Father’s House Are Many Mansions: Family and Community in Edgefield, South Carolina (1985). He is the current President of the Agricultural History Society. Recognized with teaching awards at the departmental, school, college, and campus levels, he was designated one of the first three UIUC University “Distinguished Teacher/Scholars” in 1999. He was also selected nationwide as the 1999 U.S. Research and Doctoral University Professor of the Year (presented by the Carnegie Foundation and by CASE). In the 2000–2001 academic year, he was named a Carnegie Scholar as well as Mark Clark Distinguished Visiting Professor of History at the Citadel.Resources Available: TEXT.

Interview with James O. HortonJim Horton is Benjamin Banneker Professor of American Studies and History, George Washington University and the Director of the African-American Communities Project at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. He is the author of numerous articles and five books, including, Free People of Color: Inside the African-American Community, (1993), and In Hope of Liberty: Culture, Protest, and Community Among Northern Free Blacks, 1790–1806, which was co-authored with Lois E. Horton and published in 1997. He has been extremely active as a public historian, serving as adviser to numerous museums and film projects and as chair of National Park Service Advisory Board. He has also had a distinguished teaching career over the past twenty-five years; in 1994, he received the Trachtenberg Distinguished Teaching Award from George Washington University; in 1996, he was named CASE Professor of the Year for the District of Columbia by the Carnegie Foundation. He is interviewed here by Roy Rosenzweig, Director of the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. Resources Available: TEXT.